Martin: I am a fan of American Beat Generation writers, mostly William Borroughs. Starting from that point, over the years, I have discovered Henry Miller, Charles Bukowski and other self-biopic writers. I use to imagine the existence of a link between these writers and some cosmovision of the Bohemian tanguero. It could be that nocturnal character, those dreams suggested by the sunset, a lament for a lost love or for a wrong life. Sometimes, it is better for the story not to know the exact original sin. I have written fictional lyrics. I don’ t take any inspiration from my real life. As for lyricists, I worked with Adrian Abonizio in my project TANGOMORFO- SIS. Sometimes I try to steal ideas from him, because he’ s by far the best lyricist I ever met.
We never ask our guest to sing in a style different of their own, and even less to sing as tangueros. We have also worked with Palo Pandolfo and Juan Subira, rockers with aesthetics very close to tango. As a matter of fact, I think that Palo was an important influence on the fusion of rock, song and tango at the beginning of this century. We have invited Laura Cardini on different occasions. Laura does not dedicate her life exclusively to singing, which we find to be an advantage. She is an anthropologist. She is also very theatrical in her live performances, and people really like that.
MTW: What do you think about dancing to San Telmo Lounge songs?
Martin: That is not so easy! I do not create the music of San Telmo Lounge with the idea of this must be danced, because I am not a dancer. I started to learn to dance tango this year, I think dancers have a very different approach from musicians. In spite of this, we used to play at many milongas, mostly in Europe, where people enjoy dancing to our music, maybe because of its mix of traditional and new ways.
MTW: Today’ s tango scene is complex, looking both at tradition and absorbing a lot of influences coming from contemporary musical styles. How do you feel about today’ s tango and neo-tango scenes? Where do you think we’ re going in the future?
MTW: San Telmo Lounge has featured many guest artists, especially singers. Can you tell us something about these partnerships? Do such artists have any tango or tango-fusion background, or do they come from other musical styles? How did they react to the experience with your project?
Martin: Our two first guests where Noelia Moncada and Lidia Borda, two great tango singers. We then invited Sandra Corizzo, Adrian Abonizio, Fabian Gallardo and Coki Debernardi, rock and pop musicians. For each of them, we managed to arrange a song close to the aesthetics of what they usually sing.
Martin: Today’ s tango scene is really big, with a great diversity of subgenres and formations. There are traditional groups trying to play as near as they can to the original styles of Anibal Troilo, Osvaldo Pugliese, Carlos Di Sarli or Horacio Salgan. Then there are the new songwriters like Acho Estol from La Chicana and Cucusa Castiello among the others. On the other hand you have more new orchestras like Astillero, Rascasuelo or Julian Peralta, which compose new repertoires of instrumental pieces for orchestra. Here in Rosario, there are many musicians engaged in tango who started studying more than ten years ago. Among the others, I can name guitarist Martin Tessa and pianist Gerardo Martinez Lo Re. They both teach at the Municipal Tango Orchestra, a project in which they prepared new tango musicians. All in all, this is a very good moment for the tango scene. The future is ours.
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